[02/04/03] ''One can only hope that this war will come to an early end and that all the suffering and disruption experienced by ordinary Iraqi people will also cease in the very short term,'' stressed Joseph Borg, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Malta and Chairman-in-Office of the Committee of Ministers, when presenting the Committee of Ministers’ communication to the Parliamentary Assembly on Thursday 3 April.

The communication covered a wide range of Committee of Ministers activities, concerning in particular Serbia and Montenegro, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the situation in Chechnya, as well as action to strengthen the social dimension of the Council of Europe’s work.